and barbary pirates and the next barrier central philippines fox rebellion. another one letter quarto canal at iwo jima, the next one marked tuscon incheon and chosin reservoir in the following marked caisson, da nang and weighs city. the next-to-last one marked beirut, kuwait and somalia and the final barrier carried the names of some in of the marine corps's most recent battles, nasiriyah, baghdad and fallujah. as we exit the wire, suddenly the the battle name stops and we became part of history ourselves. now it's strange to think that just 11 years ago, last night, we all went to bed peacefully without any notions the following morning we were going to be thrown ready or not into what became the longest war in american history and it's hard now for me to imagine words like fallujah and nasiriyah and al-qaim without having some sort of emotional response. it's hard to remember what it was like to think about a date like september 11, without all the emotions it brings up. is also equally difficult to remember all my classmates and we were all like before t